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We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreWashington is still reeling from Saturday, when a gunman opened fire on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.The coming weeks will inevitably create a political tit-for-tat. Republicans have begun to point the finger at Democrats, with some blaming House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for vowing, “Maximum warfare all the time,” even though, as our friend Jamie Dupree pointed out, he borrowed it from an aide close to the president.Set that aside. The fact remains that a gunman got dangerously close to President Donald Trump less than two years after a bullet grazed his ear.Many people on all sides pointed out just how close to the president and how few security protocols were in place. Expect Congress to open multiple inquiries into the Secret Service, security staff and the Washington Hilton. FBI Director Kash Patel, who was on thin ice before the shooting and who attended the dinner, will face a make-or-break moment for his stewardship of the agency.But at the forefront will be a major challenge for Speaker of the House Mike Johnson: Somehow finding a way to get out of the ditch that is the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) now faces a difficult task to reopen the Department of Homeland Security after the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. (Reuters)Let’s recap. In January, Democrats and Republicans decided to fund the rest of the government with the exception of the Department of Homeland Security. They did so after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official shot and killed Renee Good and Customs and Border Protection officials shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.But the negotiations on safeguards for ICE and CBP never came to fruition and the department shut down. The country saw wraparound lines at airports as Transportation Security Administration agents did not get paid.Eventually, the Senate relented and passed a Homeland Security spending bill without funding for ICE and CBP by unanimous consent. Republicans including Senate Majority Leader John Thune did so with the hope to pass funding for the two agencies via budget reconciliation, which allows them to pass bills related to spending via a simple majority and avoid a filibuster.Unsurprisingly, Johnson rejected it, calling it “a joke.” At the time, Inside Washington called this “the dumbest shutdown” (we stand by that characterization). Then, almost inexplicably, a few days later, Johnson embraced plan Thune initially proposed with Trump’s blessing.The shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner raises the salience of reopening the Department of Homeland Security. (AP)Still, Johnson has refused to put the Homeland Security bill. Johnson has made the case that Republicans need to first come to an agreement on the reconciliation bill and what that will include.Republicans like Rep. Chip Roy of the archconservative House Freedom Caucus are already demanding that money for Trump’s proposed ballroom go in the reconciliation bill. Given the president’s desire to see it built, it’s hard to imagine that money will not be included.Democrats deserve some blame. They tried to use the little leverage they have in the minority and they got no reforms to ICE and CBP. This is to say nothing of the fact that ICE and CBP received billions of dollars in the One Big, Beautiful Bill and were unbothered by the shutdown and now are about to get another massive check.But Johnson now owns this DHS shutdown every day he does not put the Senate bill on the floor. And now with an attempted assassination, Republicans will have more pressure breathing down his back to fund the initial package and then pass the reconciliation bill.Johnson will probably still have plenty of conservatives who will bleat “hell no” about funding Homeland Security without ICE and CBP or even parts of the SAVE America Act, their bill that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote.That might force Johnson to lean on Democrats to help pass the bill. But even they might not be willing to help given the fact there are no safeguards for ICE.Johnson has boxed himself into a corner by being unwilling to work with Democrats. As such, it’s now his responsibility to fix the problem, for Trump and the country.
